Follow on Facebook

Sunday, May 20, 2012

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2 Corinthians 10:6
)
I know it seemed as though that friend’s attitude was directed towards you. However, you do well not to accept the offense personally. Yes, they may have had an awful attitude when they answered your call, responded to your question, or reacted to your statement. No, you are not obligated to let your imagination run wild with the idea that the other person’s attitude is all about you, Marsha. Perhaps your phone call, question, or comment, after a long series of disappointments and mishaps within a short span of time, just happened to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. That makes you today’s grand prize winner in the attitude sweepstakes or lottery. Viola! Congratulations! God obviously knew you could handle it with flying colors, make lemonade out of this sour fruit, offer a Word of encouragement, and allow love, rather than your emotions, rule in the situation and thereby be a peacemaker. This is how you keep friends, share the love which is God, and avoid the bait of Satan that seeks to trap you in the snare of the fowler and keep you bound, upset, unsettled, and bitter. Remember that God is your peace. If you form the habit of taking a deep breath and thinking of the goodness of the Lord in those times of offense, betrayal, and ugliness in your face, you will be better able to bless the Lord at all times and let His praise continually be in your mouth (Psalm 34:1). Hallelujah! “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” (Psalm 103:1) Oh, we who live and move and have our being in Christ are too blessed to concentrate on any such evil mess or misunderstanding. Praise God Almighty! Hallelujah! The joy, the joy, the joy of the Lord is our strength. Rise up in righteousness and give negativity and strife a mortal beat down today in Jesus’ mighty name. As they say in Jamaica; seen? Irie, mon. I and I will bless the Lord! Hallelujah! Bless His most high holy name and smile as though you have heard the good news of His virgin birth, sinless life, death, burial, resurrection, and promise to come again for His bride! Hallelujah! I should just shut up and play my drums, however…

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NASB)
You can listen to Oprah, Dr. Phil, and the NY Times best-selling authors and take medication to cope with the delusions of this world, or, you can belly up to the truth. Anyone who has read the Book of Romans recently knows what we can expect from mankind, even our closest family, confidants, and friends. The depravity of man is a given, not a surprise. Did the twelve disciples follow through with their resolution not to leave Jesus’ side once the Roman soldiers came and took Him by force to be crucified? Did Peter not deny that he even knew Jesus once the persecution foretold became a reality (Matthew 26:34, Mark 14:72, Luke 22:61)? I have no misconceptions about my own friends denying me thrice when the weight of tolerating me has become too much for mortal men. But, hey; hallelujah! There is one… Ha ha! Oh, there are three in heaven who agree as one (1 John 5:7) – His name is El Olam (Genesis 21:33), The Everlasting God, Faithful, True, and Eternal Lord - Jehovah. He alone is the friend that sticketh closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24).
There are friends who, because they filter reality through carnal, flesh-colored spectacles as all men are subject to, cannot purely receive and see what I am saying here. My every word will be filtered and imperfectly interpreted to mean something other than what I am communicating. Some will even rebuke me (in the flesh), accusing me of committing evil on Facebook with posts such as these, when, in reality, I write with malice toward none but the enemies of truth. This creates space between us men which cannot be filled again except by the Holy Spirit if and when we are occasionally of one accord in that Spirit which is the Lord. “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17) How much more could we accomplish together for the Kingdom if we could walk consistently together in the Spirit without making every word and every situation about us? That would be a God-centered worldview rather than one that is self-centered. That would be a healthy, living, breathing, revived, and unified church worthy to be called the Body of Christ in the last days.
If I am guilty of anything in posts such as these, I am guilty of thinking out loud and making myself, the good, the bad, and the ugly, completely transparent. The only communication that can ever be perfect is that between God and man. As little children, we are weak but God is strong. “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26, 27 NASB)
My thoughts, being imperfect and infinitely lower than God’s, are often random, incomplete, or seemingly meaningless. However, I consider that I am not necessarily called to minister to my circle of friends, my nation, or even my generation. God can use a gift revealed today to benefit none other than a solitary youth in Vietnam three centuries in the future. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)
Postmodern thinkers and intellectuals, puffed up with pride and impressed with their own self-sufficiency, are so great and mighty in their own minds that they find it impossible to admit that God exists. Well, if I stand before any traffic court judge in America, having overlooked or ignored a stop sign and rolled on through the intersection, I will learn that my ignorance of the law will in no wise nullify a guilty verdict and the subsequent consequences. God is not some equation you can figure out, Poindexter. “O how deep are God's riches, and wisdom, and knowledge! How unfathomable are his decisions and unexplainable are his ways!” (Romans 11:33) You may refuse to believe it until you are forced by the circumstances of a situation to believe it – for, in such an hour, if you believe not, there shall exist no longer in your carnal mind, your only mind, any hope at all for you. Many men suddenly discovered faith in Jesus and eternal life while pinned down in a foxhole under enemy fire on the battlefield or while plummeting speedily from the sky in a jetliner with a failed engine. You can tell me anything, Mr. Atheist. However, life has a way of bringing us to a point in time when we must put our money where our mouths are. I will lay down my life for this gospel which has saved me from self, the bondage of sin, and eternal separation from all that is good and perfect. Expecting the atheist to understand or accept rationally the peace which comes with placing all of my hope in God’s eternal promises in Jesus Christ would be like expecting my dog to understand why we dress and season a turkey before roasting it.
I have said all of this merely to make this point: I do not have a great mind. However, what little mind I have is on Christ, on letting His mind be in me, in living and moving and having my being in Him, and, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, and whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, I endeavor as much as possible at my feeble age nearing senility, to think on these things (Philippians 4:8).

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
Of course the little girl wants to dress up like her mommy and as a teenager she will desire to do the same thing. She has no idea that grown men will lust after her and pay undue attention to her frame. She has no idea that, while old and young men alike will befriend her and seem to genuinely adore her personhood, they only do so with the ulterior motive of deflowering and robbing her of the purity and innocence of God’s glory that He placed deep within her as a precious flower intended to bloom in its season. It is God who is therefore violated. Woe be unto men who lust with evil eyes and scrape together the wrath of God whom they have not yet learned to fear, though Hurricanes and Tsunamis alike bear His signature alone. Hallelujah!
“God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.” (Psalm 7:11) Those who are evil are deluding themselves if they think for one second that they shall escape judgment in the end. A red hot needle through both eyes at this moment would be preferable to the wrath of God they heap up for themselves which shall most definitely be executed in His time. Consider the power of just one tornado or lightning bolt as you reflect on the fact that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10) Think about it, Poindexter;
“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”
― Albert Einstein
Thank you for calling me friend, oh God. Thank you for reminding me that Job made a covenant with his eyes not to look lustfully at a girl (Job 31:1). Hallelujah! We thank you that by your grace alone through the sanctifying power of your Holy Spirit, Word (Ephesians 5:26-27), and eternal fatherhood, we take great pains to humbly extend our hand rather than to lustfully grab for the sisters, mothers, and daughters of your holy assembly as we greet one another with or without witnesses. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that through your Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, you have bestowed upon us integrity quite foreign to our carnal nature. We are, in Christ, new men, new husbands, and new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). Hallelujah! Because, by your grace through faith alone we live and move and have our being in Jesus Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin and our carnal nature. Hallelujah! Lord, let the weak say that we are strong today because of what you have done for us through your perfect sacrifice upon the Cross. Oh Lord, protect us from ourselves, from our selfish carnal natures, and lead us by your Spirit each day so that we ascend up out of the miry clay with our feet set upon a rock (Psalm 40:2). Establish our goings, Lord God Almighty. Anoint our heads with oil so that we can look with your eyes upon the Rock from whence we were hewn (Isaiah 51:1). Hallelujah!
Help us, Lord, even when we fall, fail, and mess up royally, to rise up by the power of your grace to pursue righteousness and seek you even unto our last breath. Thank you, Lord, for entrusting your precious daughters to us. May we remain conscious of the responsibility of care for which you shall hold each of us accountable. Help us to spend sufficient time in your Word and presence in order to be changed from dead, wormy, carnal, stagnant harbors of evil concupiscence to the joyous righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). Thank you, thank you, and thank you. Because of who you are, since only you can do what you can do, we magnify your holy name and give you glory, honor, and praise. Thank you for being on my mind and resting on my heart today. I could have been concentrating on a million other things during the time it has taken to think about your goodness, mercy, and grace today. Thank you for giving me the desires of my heart. Help me to be ready to lay it all down at the Cross. I am determined to go all the way. The joy has been set before me. Thank you, Lord. You and you alone are The most High God who was and is and is to come. Hallelujah! There is none like you. Thank you, oh God of Jacob, King of Glory, and Everlasting God. You are worthy of all praise. Come quickly, Lord. Maranatha!